CEIR: Expos experience broad declines in third quarter

Dallas—The exhibition industry experienced declines in all key performance metrics during the third quarter due to the slumping economy, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR).

The newly released CEIR Index for the third quarter showed an overall exhibition industry decline of 13.5% compared with the same quarter in 2008. Third-quarter performance was 2.6% lower than this year’s second quarter.

Broken out by individual metric, total exhibition square feet declined 16.2% for the quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, while revenue was off 22%, professional attendance was down 2.5%, and the number of exhibiting companies declined 13.4%.